Posts Tagged With: Community

So…..N now volunteers at the Sunday school. It has been like that for a while now. S quit because she couldn’t stand the little rowdy kids who wouldn’t listen (lol). But N seems to love working with the little kiddies. In fact, so much so that she is like the teacher that the kids love!

She plays with them, lets them ride her a horse. Once I came to the masjid and found her being ridden by the little girls. She said she has always wanted a baby sister and that’s why she loves playing with the younger girls. Hmm…how about that?

S has resumed going to volunteer at the girls and boys club with Jn. She doesn’t have patience with young kids. Oh boy. In this case, N is a lot like hubs. Maybe S is kind of like me.

We went to Tucson last week, tagging along with hubs for his conference. This time, for Z’s food, I asked hubs to just ask for a fridge in the room and so I just cooked food as I would if we were eating at home, froze them in small ziplocs and we brought our cooler and I put them in insulated lunch bags. By the time we reached the hotel room, they were still frozen so I just transferred them to the fridge. The ones in the insulated lunch bag stayed frozen the longest (since the fridge doesn’t have a freezer section). Hubs even asked for a microwave, which we used to heat up leftovers of Chef Alisah’s delicious food!

We drove there Monday after S is done with her TQ class, and dropped by Whole Food for greens before going to the hotel. On Tuesday, all of us except the girls went to the pool, and they slid on the 180 feet water slide. S had her TQ and N didn’t want to come. That evening, we all went to this Bosnian restaurant, and it was our first time (not hubs) eating Bosnian food. It was a LOT of meat for us. It was supposed to be for 4, but for us carb-eating Malays, that was too much meat, so we took them home and put them in the fridge and they lasted us for the rest of our meals till we left on Thursday! Alhamdulillah. It was delicious though, the chicken was moist and flavorful and the meat, delish! For Z, we heated up his pasta and brought it with us and he ate it before our food reached the table.

S in her TQ class. It was nice to hear her class even while we’re traveling. And mine too! And this time, Nouman too!

I had brought along Z’s calendar notebook but only did it with him on one of the days, because by sticking to our regular schedule and taking them swimming and I had to make up my missed class on Thursday, it left little time for me to work with him. But at least we got something done, alhamdulillah. I foresaw January as being very tight for me, so whatever I am able to get done, I am grateful for, alhamdulillah.

Z loved getting on this golf cart. We were transported by it the night we arrived and the day we were checking out(since it was raining then).

On Wednesday, because I had class, hubs took the kids hiking in the late afternoon. I was left alone in the room attending my class. That morning, all the kids had classes, for N, throughout the morning, from 7 – 11 am. We still stuck with our Tafseer and Arabic With Husna routine throughout the stay in Tucson alhamdulillah. Though on Wednesday we weren’t able to finish watching CNNStudentNews.

We don’t have any saguaros in New Mexico, so you will only see these in Arizona.

On Wednesday and Thursdays, I took H and Z swimming and alhamdulillah, using the noodles, 3 of them wrapped around him front and back, Z used his feet and arms and swam a lot with H. H is able to swim pretty well from what I am able to assess, alhamdulillah. Z is still a little scared, though he could stand in the pool with his head above water, he refused and relied completely on the noodles keeping him afloat. But at least he swam a lot, and I hope it helps in making his upper body stronger as that is the focus in his occupational therapy.

On Thursday, before we left, we dropped by the Asian grocery store to shop and of course, where there are Asian grocery stores, there are Bubble Tea! I’ve been looking for tapioca balls and we finally found them at the Asian grocery store. So hopefully we can make our own bubble tea soon. When we arrived home Thursday night, Z kept saying he wanted to go back to Tucson and he kept asking for it the next day too and the next day. He loved watching the video clips I took of them swimming. We all enjoyed our time there alhamdulillah.

Now it’s back to work. Last night, the girls were asked to fill in for a sick teacher for Sunday school and today, both S and N went to the masjid to fill in as Islamic studies teachers. While S was preparing for it last night, she showed be the book they are using, and in it, it says that the fruits that Zakariya a.s. found with Maryam a.s. were brought in by the people and that when she said, “This is from Allah,” she meant that it was a blessing of Allah that those people brought her those fruits. This is the first time we heard of this interpretation, so it became a bit of an issue, and eventually we decided that it is best that when she does this passage with the students, that she inform them that based on what she is aware of, this is not the case. So on Saturday, all 3 kids went to volunteer at the soup kitchen, and today, the girls went to teach at Sunday school. They said the students were pretty well behaved alhamdulillah and listened to them! One of our concerns of having S teach was that they might not listen to her because some of the older ones would be close to her in age, but alhamdulillah they listened. And in Tajweed class, where an older Saudi sister is teaching, S was suddenly asked to translate ayatul kursi in English to the students, and alhamdulillah, as S had already done it in TQ, she was able to do that. Subhanallah, a blessing from Allah. To be able to read from the mushaf and translate it. Alhamdulilah, Allahu Akbar! It’s an indescribable feeling! Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah!

So alhamdulillah, it’s a productive weekend for the kids. H spent time playing basketball tonight with a boy, which is part of an effort to have my friend’s kids to like coming to the masjid inshaaAllah. May Allah bless the effort and give the taufeeq for our youth to be attached to the masjid. Ameen.

Finally, we worked on our Step book inspired by this, and read Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney. I also looked for the Reading Rainbow Episode when I saw on the cover of the book that it is a Reading Rainbow book, but it turned out that it was only mentioned as a recommended book, but we watched it anyway.

We made the step book and while S was on break during her class, I searched for the printouts for earth, continents, country, and state to make my life easier in making the step book. It was a harrowing last minute task but it’s done now alhamdulillah. I even took out our Traveling Atlas and together, Z and I looked for our city on the New Mexico map. He was able to pinpoint it on the empty printout.

He is fascinated by the map of the house and the street. We did this activity yesterday, and today, we did the mail carrier unit by Confessions of a Homeschooler, which I had printed way back. Since today is library day, I took the opportunity to look for books on Mail carriers, police, firefighters and checked out DVDs on them too. While Z finished writing out his letter to H in the mail carrier unit activity, and practiced writing our address, I cut and put together his lapbook for the firefighter unit so we can work on it tomorrow inshaaAllah.

On his own, Z has been looking at his step book. At first, when we made it, he didn’t seem to interested, but last night, as we were watching the Omar series, he kept on shoving it in my face. So Alhamdulilah, he is fascinated by it and alhamdulillah. While I was putting together his fire fighter lapbook, I was making dua Allah puts barakah in all of this because of the time I was spending and because of my exhaustion. It’s not really about how fun the activities are, but it’s about the effort we put in and about Allah’s taufeeq and barakah. I can spend an awful lot of time in preparing materials and activities but if it has no barakah, the kids won’t even remember what was taught. And I feel like this has been the case for some or most things with the older kids.

I even showed him our house number when we got back from the library and on the way to the library I pointed out the post office to him. When we got back home, I read books to him related to mail carrier.

The books:

Postal Workers by Shannon Knudsen

How it happens in the Post Office by Dawn Frederick

Owney the Mail-Pouch Pooch by Mona Kerby

Mule Train Mail by Craig Brown

What Does a Mail Carrier Do? by Lisa Trumbauer

Altogether, these books give a good picture about mail carriers, and Mule Train Mail especially gives an interesting look into mail-carrying in the Grand Canyons. Owney is also a very interesting story, true at that too.

We also watched All About the Post Office from the 8 Film Collection All About DVD.

We had people over for Eid on Eid day, went to Chuck E. Cheeses on Saturday, because Z has been promised it, and on Sunday, I figured we could do some sadaqah by volunteering at the soup kitchen. We would just be home otherwise anyway. We played tennis for maybe like half an hour and then hubs dropped us off at the soup kitchen and picked us up after about 1.5 hours.

Of course, I always get looks because of my niqab. People don’t necessarily ask me about it, though I did get some. But most of the time people are just curious, a little taken aback maybe, but overall, quite respectful, polite, and nice. The kids haven’t screamed yet when they see me. In fact, I’ve helped a few of their moms with their trays and the kids have been fine with me even actually spoon-feeding them (like today).

But something amusing happened today. N and S were serving, and there was a man who was holding a red carnation, an old man. He suddenly gave it to N, saying N’s face is as pretty as the flower. We had a good laugh about it later on, and after we left, I asked her where the flower was. S said she had hid it somewhere at the soup kitchen and left it there, out of embarrassment. *Chuckle*

We still have the ram’s head in our front yard right now. Hubs had brought it home after the slaughtering. I think it can scare potential burglars. But we need to get rid of it soon.

Z suddenly told me yesterday,

“I want hajj.”

I do too. InshaaAllah, we will go to hajj when He decrees it is best.

Tomorrow is still the day of tashreek, but we inshaaAllah start school tomorrow. I have to get started planning out activities for Z. Next week, my break is over, and my schedule is probably going to resume its hecticness.

Alhamdulillah we arrived home after a 10 hour drive from Dallas last night, and struggling to catch up with life right now. I had group and S has class. N and H have class today too. Busy busy busy. Then of course there is a sizeable amount of laundry, unpacking and resuming life at home to be done.

I have to say this. Every time we return home from our road trips, I feel sad. I love our road trips. This past weekend, I attended a public speaking workshop, from Thursday to Monday. It was an 8-5 daily workshop, and towards the end of the workshop, I was getting very stressed out because they had assigned us a 10 minute speech with only an overnight to prepare. While I was in the workshop, hubs and the kids hung out in the hotel. S did her math and studied her Taleem but the rest simply hung out. A couple of mishaps happened, and I felt like a working mom, coming home to hear that this happened, and to still have to nag at things that are not done. But mashaAllah, they pretty much took care of cooking. We hd brought a rice cooker and that was our stove, steamer, kettle all in one. They did a pretty good job with handling food. Hubs really did a great job. He dropped me off and picked me up, and for every night, he offered to go get something, so we’ve been indulging in Iced frappe, shakes, bubble tea while we were in Dallas. This is something out of the ordinary because we don’t usually do this. Hubs is a very frugal guy and so this was a big deal. But it was a beautiful gesture.

The workshop was amazing. I love it! Hubs and kids got to hear parts of it too, and especially Wisam’s tajweed session. Hubs would stay for a bit after dropping me off before going back to the hotel to the kids so he could listen to parts of the workshop. Even though I was the only one attending this workshop, it was as if the whole family did.

At lunch break they all came and brought lunch and we ate together. Reminds me of our AlMaghrib days. Every day, after the workshop, I’d share what I learned with hubs. He could have attended the Khateeb workshop but he let me attend the Sisters Public Speaking one. Subhanallah.

On Sunday, I prepared my speech, and practiced it on the family but it was difficult. I was only able to properly articulate what I wanted to say after they had all gone to sleep and I was coming down with a headache due to accumulation of lack of sleep, and after a while I just went to bed. On Monday, I thought to myself, oh whatever happens, happens. I wasn’t ready for the speech. But alhamdulillah they gave us some time to finish it. I didn’t really write out my whole speech, I skipped that and jumped straight to te note card bullet points. As English is not my native language, I worried about stumbling over my words and up till the time we had to present to our evaluators, I was in that condition.

Hubs and the kids checked out of the hotel earlier than 12 so they got to attend Wisam’s tajweed session. I realize that whenever I am attending classes like these on my own, I feel a bit wistful. I wished the whole family was attending, because the benefit of these classes are such that I don’t want them deprived of it. So when I saw hubs I was happy. The kids I know were also listening at the musalla because the sound system was such that the whole masjid can hear.

When time came for our speech presentation, my evaluator was Wisam and a sister. I was already panicking, and having Wisam as an evaluator made me even more nervous. But mashaAllah they both gave very nice positive affirmations and constructive criticism. During my speech however, Z came over and subhanallah, when I saw him coming towards me, I thought to myself,

“Of all times, he has to come and interrupt me now?”

I only patted him and went on with my speech though. From the corner of my eyes, I saw H coming and he took Z away. But when I was receiving feedback from our evaluators, they said that it was great that I wasn’t fazed by the kids coming when I was presenting. Thinking back, I’m surpised myself. At home, I’ve never been really able to block them out. I don’t like interruptions and can’t really tolerate them well, but alhamdulilah, I guess, I do have the ability to tolerate them in a fairly good manner.

I also got to ask Wisam some tajweed questions that have been plaguing me for years now alhamdulillah. We left earlier than planned because I got to ask Sh Abdunasir my questions and I had finished my speech. We drove back home, but of course, like whenever we visit a bigger Muslim community in other cities, we felt wistful. At least hubs and I was. We want to move. But it’s all in Allah’s hand. We can only plan and put in the effort. InshaAllah. Whatever Allah decrees is best for us. Alhamdulillah.

Now, back home, back to work. I have a lot to catch up with and the kids do too. S’ PSAT is next week and I still have to call the high school since we just played phone tag all of last week.

We continued our Tafseer session this morning. And subhanallah it was so relevant to what we did yesterday. We did Ayah 3 today.

Sahih International

And does not encourage the feeding of the poor.

Wa laa yahuddu ‘alaa taAAami almiskeen

To make this post easier to write for me, this is an excerpt of notes from Linguistic Miracles :

The previous aayaat was in regard to their personal lives.

But this ayah is directly affecting their public reputation that they’ve took so long to build up.

These people who are being criticized – are the leaders of the Quraysh (i.e. Abu Lahab who is the treasurer) – who have the duty and role of feeding and supporting the weak (atleast at an official level). However, they do not fulfill this role.

Leaders should be at the forefront of feeding the poor, serving the public, and helping the weak. But instead, these leaders are wasting the money they are entrusted with to the other rich men in society, whereas this money is public money. Thus showing their corruption and lack of responsibility in their role as leader.

They had the mentality that they needed to protect the agenda of the rich instead of protecting the weak. Because the rich support their high position, and keep their support in place. If they helped the poor – they would not get such benefits.
So they didn’t help the poor, neither enjoin people to help them – so that they would keep their power and position in society.

Why doesn’t he encourage people to give to the poor?

– If he encourages people to feed the poor – people will ask him why he doesn’t feed the orphan and poor himself?
Allah is exposing this corrupt rich persons psyche – you don’t want to encourage people to spend on the poor, otherwise you won’t be able to use this money in corruption and dealings with other rich people.

This is all over the world. The leaders trample over the rights of the weak.

Yesterday we volunteered at the local soup kitchen, all 3 older kids and I. The kids love volunteering at the soup kitchen and for this I am very grateful to Allah for giving them this taufeeq, because that makes it that much easier for me. Alhamdulillah. Last weekend was actually hectic. The girls went to the Animal Shelter open house right after the soup kitchen, and S even forgoed Tennis that morning so she wouldn’t be too overwhelmed with the back to back activities.

So while we were discussing after the tafseer session, I brought up our volunteering at the soup kitchen.

“What is the significance of Allah using the word Ta’aam versus It’aam?”

Ta’aam = Food, It’aam = Feeding. In the ayah, it says Ta’aamul miskeen (Food of the needy) not It’aamul miskeen (feeding of the needy) though in translation of course they put it as the latter to make for an easier read. But the significance here is that it points out that the food is the right of the needy in the first place. When you feed someone, it can be your food or someone else’s, but when you say food of the needy, it means it’s THEIR food in the first place.

I also asked them, “So, whose rights are upon us? Two big categories.”

They weren’t able to come up with the second. They came up with the first (Allah).

“The first is Allah, the second is His creations, which includes, ourselves, parents, orphans, people, animals, plants, the earth.”

“What is our body’s right upon us?”

N: “To take care of it because Allah already gave it to us and everything.”

“What can’t we do if we don’t take care of our body?”

H: “We can’t worship Him.”

It’ll be hard to engage in acts of worship with health problems though that is not an excuse to slacken in them.

I asked them,

“Did you hear yesterday this man was asking this girl next to me, ‘Are you here on a voluntary basis? Or serving community service hours ? Got in trouble?'”

H: “He was joking wasn’t he?”

Me : “Yeah he was, but let’s talk about this. So, what does this tell you? How easy is it to get people to volunteer?”

H : “Hard.”

“What else does it tell you?”

H: “Community service helps people.”

Me: “So, if people ask you, what does your Koran teach you, what is one of the things you can say?”

H: “Feeding the needy.”

Me: “So is volunteering at soup kitchens part of Islam then?”

Yes. If you notice, it’s part of almost every religion, mainly Christianity, Judaism, Islam, though there are some misconceptions about participating in it among Muslims living in the west.

Me:”They have a right upon us, those needy, they have a right upon us. Islam doesn’t teach us to just mind our own business and do our thing, but it teaches us balance. We fulfill rights of Allah, and we fulfill rights of others too.”

Then I started talking about GMO food and the arsenic in rice. I had just watched Genetic Roulette, and so I relayed to them some of what struck me in that documentary.

Me: “Being Muslims, having Islam, is a beautiful thing, because we have a ‘weapon’ against these corruptions done by human beings that go into our food. What is that weapon?”

N: “Bismillah.”

Me: “When we eat, if we say Bismillah each time, and Allah blesses the food, inshaAllah, we’ll be okay. Because not everyone can buy organic or GMO-free. Instead of being stressed out and despairing, Allah makes life simpler for us, but this is not a ticket to just sit back and not put effort in choosing good food. We still have that responsibility.”

And H apparently drew this ‘weapon’ which I find worth including in this post, mashaAllah. On second thought, it’s more of a protective shield than a weapon.

On our time yesterday at the soup kitchen: N ws given the task of serving corn, but when serving time came, she was assigned to help the handicapped with their trays, and I was serving sandwiches. I noticed that she wasn’t doing her job as a couple of people on wheelchairs passed through me. She had this expression on her face that conveyed she didn’t like her assigned task, so I quickly switched with her.

I have to admit that I feel slight apprehension even with serving, because once, a man actually touched my niqab saying,

“So what’s this?”

and I was even then more apprehensive about helping them at the tables because of what they may say or do, but alhamdulillah, they were mostly just grateful. Even though I looked very different from what they’re used to seeing or even from the rest of the Muslim women who have served them at the soup kitchen, they didn’t say or do anything that violated my physical or emotional well-being. Alhamdulillah.

Later, N asked me, “So was it fun helping people with their trays?”

“Of course!”

It actually feels good. It’s more direct interaction with the people and I really felt the humanity from them too. There was a man who probably has Parkinson’s and he needed help with carrying his tray and getting his cup of water. Then there was a woman who was shaking so much, she dropped her watermelon and she even slightly stumbled upon sitting on her chair. We had actually seen her walking towards the soup kitchen. Nt even talked to her at length about the Hijab and niqab, so when she saw me, she said,

“Niqab, Hijab, I remember those words! I love those outfits!”

For now, the kids are in love with serving the food. They don’t really want tasks where they have to interact with the people as much. I was watching them yesterday and I asked that Allah correct and purify our intentions in doing this. For them, even if it’s just the fun of serving food for now, it’s good. I do hope that they also realize the deeper significance of this deed and may Allah bless it such that it makes them into giving, loving, and helpful people to any and everyone who needs it, Muslim or not. May Allah bless it, for if He doesn’t, no matter how much effort we put into it, it will all be for naught, if not in this world, then in the hereafter.

Right after we were done, hubs picked H and I up, while the girls waited for Jn to pick them up for the Animal Shelter’s open house event. We had told them to make sure they pray Zuhr, and find a place. When they got back home, I asked them if they prayed Zuhr. Alhamdulillah, they did. Again here, balance. Fulfilling Allah’s rights and the rights of His creations. You can do all the volunteering jobs you can do, but if you don’t worship Allah as He has ordained, you’re going off balance. And you can worship Allah all you want in terms of rituals, but if you don’t fulfill the rights of His creations, you’re going off balance. You’re being an extremist.

Praying in awkward circumstances is one of the challenges of living in a majority non Muslim country. Ever since they were young, we’ve struggled with this and we kept training them to excuse themselves or just take a few minutes from class, soccer practice, games etc, to pray when the time comes, whether it be in a secluded corner, on the soccer field, in a hallway, behind the staircase, etc. But they have to pray. This is one experience they have that Muslims living in Muslims countries are probably not familiar with as Musallah are easily found in Muslim majority countries. It makes it easier to just go to a masjid or musallah and do your prayer when the time for that prayer comes in, but here, you have to be creative while also keeping in mind the Islamophobia that is going on. They might think we are warming up for a ‘terrorist’ attack of some sort when they see us in bowing and prostrating positions in a weird place like a parking lot. You never know. People think all sorts of things, and so this is the challenge we have to face in practicing our religion where Islam is seen in a horribly bad light. But alhamdulillah, I hope the kids are pretty established in their prayers so far, that they know what to do even when we’re not with them. Prayer is non negotiable. They know that.

Recently, we’ve been having a halaqa(study circle) for sisters at the masjid on Fridays after isha. Last Friday, Rj called me to tell me that the other sisters were not coming because of what happened. As usual, I don’t really follow the news (yes, a bad thing, a continuous struggle) so I was oblivious to what happened.

I told S to find out what happened from her student CNN website. I find the news website to be somewhat vulgar nowadays. What used to be private is now splayed all over the virtual and real pages, in public. I even cringe when I want to let my kids read the news. Politically correct or not, keep your private life private. When the private life is open as such, I guess I consider it our world turning upside down. Nothing is shameful anymore. Our sense of Hayaa is in danger, and lowering the gaze becomes an even more difficult feat (I’m guessing) for our brothers, as it also is for sisters. May Allah guide and help us be steadfast. Ameen. Fawaahish is everywhere, Muslim country or not.

So, we found out what happened, and it reminds me of what Wisam Sharief once said. He said that there is this button the enemies of Islam like to control. They push it, expecting the typical emotional reaction of these ‘barbarious’ Moslems, and they get it, and it is splayed in the global media, proving just how violent these Moslems truly are. And we Muslims, dumbly react to the push of this button, as you can see.

I also sense a kind of split between Muslims in the Muslim-majority countries and Muslims in the west. As far as I know, Muslims in the west so far are taking it in a non emotionally reactional manner, and we are at the risk of being accused of taking it too lightly. The challenge of Muslims in the majority non Muslim countries are really different than the challenges of Muslims in Muslim majority countries. I think sometimes, this divides us in terms of our perspectives on how Islam should be practiced.

But, all sound Muslims would agree that reacting with violence and murder is not the way. At least I hope so. Plus, you can always choose not to watch the movie. Give it attention and it’s like giving attention to an annoying kid at school who likes to annoy you because he wants your annoyed reaction. Seriously.

But, as usual, Ustadh Nouman puts it very nicely in light of the Quran. I love it.

There is another video too that I love, especially on the speaker’s comparison between the romance of Muhammad saw and Aisha r.a. and Romeo and Juliet, but because he spoke a bit explicitly in there with regard to the topic I wish not to even state here, I decided not to put it up.

Just this morning, we finished tafseer of Surah Al Kauthar, and in our discussion session, it was the perfect opportunity to discuss how to respond to insults on the Prophet saw. The cause of revelation of this short but deep surah is the death of the Prophet saw’s baby son. At the death of his (saw) son, Abu Lahab danced for joy because apparently, the Prophet’s saw lineage is cut off because all his sons died. When Allah revealed this surah, the first ayah didn’t even mention the enemies’ accusations/condemnation against the Prophet saw because it was too lowly to be mentioned. Instead, the surah starts with mentioning the abundance that Allah has bestowed on His messenger saw. The focus is on the blessings and favor that have been bestowed, and the end, Allah mentions that it’s the enemies who will be cut off, but doesn’t even mention who it was. Interestingly, the Prophet saw is being lauded with praise every second through azhaan everyday in all parts of the world. But the one who mentioned that the Prophet saw was ‘cut off’ is not even remembered.

There will always be insults to our prophets, and we see so much of it especially to Jesus a.s. We believe in Jesus a.s. as a prophet, so how come we’re not reacting violently to people’s misrepresentation of him or insults to him? If we are to respond as such to every insult thrown our way, our focus and mission to spread our prophets’ teachings through our behavior will be lost. That is what the shaytaan wants, so why take his bait?

Alhamdulillah, this year’s Ramadan, a historical event took place: the two masjids have united. Alhamdulillah! And with that, came activities from the Saudi and Kuwaiti brothers: a Ramadan Quran and Hadith competition along with Trivias. S even won the cash award for the trivia held on the first few days. They handed out questions on paper and the attendees are to answer them and hand them back in. They all helped each other and they ended up with so many correct answers that they had to do a draw. S’ paper was drawn, her rizq.

For the Quran competition, N is doing an Naba (for kids under 15), S is doing Al Mulk (for non Arabic speaking adults) and H, because he is in a different category due to him doing hifdh, is doing al Kahf (for Arab speaking adults). There is also to be a hadith memorizing competition. I look forward to that one. As it turns out I’m also participating in the Quran competition, but I’m only going to recite Maryam up till where I have memorized. I had committed to memorizing Maryam for Ramadan so I won’t be done with it till the end of Ramadan. The judging for the competition will be this weekend to next week, so I will recite whatever I have memorized till then. I couldn’t do Al Kahf or Mulk because I had memorized it before hand, hence Maryam. H couldn’t do Mulk because he had already memorized it too.

When he started to do Kahf, he told me that he had already accidentally memorized it due to reading it every Friday. When I checked him he had memorized like 90% of it. He still has trouble with the last 4 pages of it, but he’s working on it now.

I love that they have this this Ramadan. The trivia that they give out actually stirred excitement and it’s a good way to get people to learn about the deen in a way. So may Allah bless and reward those brothers who initiated this and everyone involved. Ameen!

We end up testing each other on our surahs, and I love the Quranic atmosphere that is produced as a result. Alhamdulillah!